For their study, Peña-Asensio and his colleagues relied on data obtained by the Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids (LICIACube), which accompanied the DART mission and witnessed the kinetic impact test. This data allowed the team to constrain the initial conditions of the ejecta, including its trajectories and velocities – ranging from a few tens of meters per second to about 500 m/s (1800 km/h; ~1120 mph). The team then used the supercomputers at NASA’s Navigation and Ancillary Information Facility (NAIF) to simulate what will become of the ejecta.

These simulations tracked the 3 million particles created by the DART mission’s impact with Dimorphos. As Peña-Asensio told Universe Today via email:

“LICIACube provided crucial data on the shape and direction of the ejecta cone immediately following the collision. In our simulation, the particles ranged in size from 10 centimeters to 30 micrometers, with the lower range representing the smallest sizes capable of producing observable meteors on Earth with current technology. The upper range was limited by the fact that only ejected centimeter-sized fragments were observed.”

Their results indicated that some of these particles would reach Earth and Mars within a decade or more, depending on how fast they traveled after the impact. For example, particles ejected at velocities below 500 m/s could reach Mars in about 13 years, whereas those ejected at velocities exceeding 1.5 km/s (5,400 km/h; 3,355 mph) could reach Earth in as little as seven years. However, their simulations indicated that it will likely be up to 30 years before any of this ejecta is observed on Earth.

“However, these faster particles are expected to be too small to produce visible meteors, based on early observations,” said Peña-Asensio. “Nevertheless, ongoing meteor observation campaigns will be critical in determining whether DART has created a new (and human-created) meteor shower: the Dimorphids. Meteor observing campaigns in the coming decades will have the last word. If these ejected Dimorphos fragments reach Earth, they will not pose any risk. Their small size and high speed will cause them to disintegrate in the atmosphere, creating a beautiful luminous streak in the sky.”

Peña-Asensio and his colleagues also note that future Mars observation missions will have the opportunity to witness Martian meteors as fragments of Didymos burn up in its atmosphere. In the meantime, their study has provided the potential characteristics these and any future meteors burning up in our atmosphere will have. This includes direction, velocity, and the time of the year they will arrive, allowing any “Dimorphids” to be clearly identified. This is part of what makes the DART mission and its companion missions unique.

In addition to validating a key strategy for planetary defense, DART has also provided an opportunity to model how ejecta caused by impacts could someday reach Earth and other bodies in the Solar System. As Michael Küppers, the Project Scientist of the ESA’s Hera mission and co-author of the paper, told Universe Today via email:

“A unique aspect of the DART mission is that it is a controlled impact experiment, i.e., an impact where the impactor properties (size, shape, mass, velocity) are accurately known. Thanks to the Hera mission, we will also know the target properties well, including those of the DART impact site. Data about the ejecta came from LICIACube and earth-based observations after the impact. There is probably no other impact on a planetary scale with that much information about the impactor, the target, and the ejecta formation and early development. This allows us to test and improve our models and scaling laws of the impact process and ejecta evolution. Those data provide the input data (source location, size, and velocity distribution) used by the ejecta evolution models.”

Further

• Reading: arXiv

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

22-08-2024 om 21:10 geschreven door peter  

While a NASA probe heads for an asteroid known as Psyche, telescopes have been probing it to prepare for the arrival. Data from the James Webb Space Telescope has found something quite unexpected on the surface – hydrated molecules and maybe even water! The origin of the water is cause for much speculation, maybe it came from under the surface or from chemical interactions with the solar wind! 

Asteroid Psyche was discovered in 1852 by the Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis. It was named after the Greek goddess of the soul who was born mortal and married Eros. It measures 225 km across and is one of the most massive objects in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Most of the asteroids in the belt are composed of rock and ice but Psyche seems to be different being largely composed of metals, perhaps the exposed core of a protoplanet that lost its outer layers. Psyche is of immense interest to study because it provides an opportunity to study planetary cores which are usually inaccessible. 

Aptly named Psyche, the probe launched by NASA has already started its 3.5 billion km journey to the asteroid, due to arrive in August 2029. With its solar panels deployed, the probe measures 25 metres by 7.3 metres, about the size of a tennis court. It has a mass of 2,747 kg and is powered by five solar panel arrays. Once arrived at Psyche they can generate about 3 kilowatts of power.

While the probe is enroute, telescopes on Earth and in space have been exploring Psyche. Observations in different wavelengths of light have provided information that will aid and support the data collected by the Psyche spacecraft. The study was led by Dr. Stephanie Jarmak from the Southwest Research Institute and it was their observations that confirmed the hydroxyl molecules on the surface. 

The data, which was collected using the James Webb Space Telescope revealed the telltale signs of hydroxyl but stopped short of explaining where they came from. There are two possible explanations and we can look to the origin of asteroids to understand them. They are the leftovers from the formation of planets and their make up is determined by the location in the solar nebula from which they formed. If the hydroxyl formed locally without interference from external process then it might suggest that Psyche is not a planetary core remnant.  It might be that Psyche simply formed at a distance that volatile compounds like water condense to form solids like ice before migrating. 

An alternative model explains the variability of the molecule distribution across the surface. This might indicate that impacts from carbonaceous chondrites (like the meteorites often found on Earth) could have provided the water molecules that have been observed. 

It seems that for now, we will have to wait until the arrival of the Psyche spacecraft in 2029 to unravel the mystery. If we can get a better understanding of the origin of the asteroid Psyche it will help us to learn more about the distribution of elements in the nebula that the planets formed from. In particular, understanding more about the distribution of water will help us to develop a better insight to the origins of life. 

Source : 

• SwRI-Ked Team Finds Evidence of Hydration on Psyche

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

22-08-2024 om 21:00 geschreven door peter  

One way to diagnose the composition of interstellar space trash, like the anomalous interstellar object `Oumuamua, is by using the hot Sun to vaporize them. Suppose their trajectories are not maneuvered by artificial propulsion like the Parker Solar Probe. In that case, the rate of interstellar “Sun-divers” can be calculated from the statistics of interstellar objects near Earth.

The rate of Sun-divers is significant – not just because the Sun is 110 times bigger than Earth but also because of gravitational focusing. The gravitational potential at the surface of the Sun is deeper by a factor of 210 compared to its value at the Earth-Sun separation. A similar factor characterizes the ratio between the square of the escape speed from the surface of the Sun and the square of the characteristic speed of interstellar objects.

Taking account of gravitational focusing, I calculated in a paper with my former postdoc John Forbes that `Oumuamua-like objects would collide with the Sun once every 30 years. `Oumuamua had a diameter of about 160 meters, comparable to the pre-launch height of Starship, the largest rocket ever built by humans. The appearance rates of meteors, namely space objects impacting the Earth, imply that there are many more small ones than there are large ones. As a rule of thumb, the inferred abundance of solar system rocks scales as the inverse of their mass. If the same applies to interstellar objects, as argued in a paper I wrote with my former student Amir Siraj, then meter-scale interstellar Sun-divers are a few million times more  abundant than `Oumuamua was.

Based on NASA’s CNEOS catalog of fireballs, the impact rate on Earth of meter-scale interstellar meteors, like IM1 or IM2, is once per decade. This suggests that a few million of them are within the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. In this case, their collision rate with the Sun would be once every 4 minutes!

Meter-size interstellar Sun-divers release the equivalent energy output of ten Hiroshima bombs upon impact on the Sun. But even before entering the Sun, they would get vaporized by the enormous radiation intensity of thousands of degrees Kelvin. By monitoring the spectrum of the evaporated gases with an Earth-based telescope, one could identify the spectral fingerprints of different elements and infer the composition of these interstellar Sun-divers.

The challenge of doing so is that only one in a thousand Sun-divers is interstellar in origin. However, one could separate interstellar objects from solar system rocks or comets by measuring their velocities and inferring whether they were unbound by the Sun’s gravity at large distances. A prime observatory for this purpose is the 4-meter Inouye Solar Telescope near the summit of Haleakala in Maui, Hawaii. Coincidentally, this is the same mountaintop where the Pan-STARRS observatory, which discovered `Oumuamua, is located. I was fortunate to visit this observatory in July 2017 when the solar telescope was constructed, just a few months before `The Pan-STARRS observatory spotted ‘Oumuamua. In principle, the Webb telescope might also be able to constrain the surface composition of interstellar objects from their infrared emission spectrum.

Alternative methods to study the composition of interstellar objects are much more expensive. The Pacific Ocean expedition I led in June 2023 targeted the chemical composition of the interstellar meteor IM1. This task cost 1.5 million dollars and required a full year of analysis, the findings of which were summarized in a detailed paper by our research team.

The discovery of an unusual chemical composition for BeLaU spherules at IM1’s site motivates our next expedition. Within a year, we hope to search for bigger pieces of IM1, which would allow us to study the material properties and nature of this anomalous interstellar meteor, which was moving faster than 95% of all stars in the vicinity of the  Sun and had material strength tougher than that of iron meteorites.

Based on recent data about the fragmentation of iron meteorites of the same size, IM1’s fireball should have left behind an order of 10,000 fragments of mass ~0.5 grams (or a diameter of ~0.5 centimeter), about 1,000 fragments of mass ~15 grams (or a diameter of ~1.5 centimeters), about 100 fragments of mass ~0.5 kilogram (or a diameter of ~5 centimeters), about ten fragments of mass ~4 kilograms (or a diameter of ~9 centimeters), and one fragment of mass ~20 kilograms (or a diameter of ~16 centimeters). We hope to find some of these in our next expedition, which will cost 6.5 million dollars.

Another approach for studying the material composition of interstellar objects is to rendezvous with them along their trajectory as they approach Earth. Our detailed calculations indicate that a maneuvering speed of tens of kilometers per second would be required, well above the few kilometers per second capability offered by the European-Japanese Comet Interceptor, planned for lunch in 2029.

Finally, there is a possibility of observing maneuvering interstellar probes in the form of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs) near Earth. The Director of National Intelligence delivered three reports about UAPs, but it is unclear from publicly available data whether the reported UAPs cannot be all human-made. The main challenge in attending to data-poor reports is avoiding confusion with existing military programs to retrieve and reverse engineer technologies found in crash sites of flying objects manufactured by adversarial nations, which could involve bodies of human pilots. Government agencies might label classified data retrieved by these programs as UAPs to confuse adversaries or discredit the leakage of classified information.

Fortunately, science is better than politics. The Galileo Project observatories take a scientific approach to resolving any confusion. They are collecting data on UAPs in the sky and will soon release the findings in a series of papers. Also fortunate for science is that neither the sky nor our oceans are classified.

• Avi Loeb is the head of the Galileo Project, founding director of Harvard University’s – Black Hole Initiative, director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the former chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University (2011-2020). He is a former member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and a former chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies. He is the bestselling author of “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth” and a co-author of the textbook “Life in the Cosmos”, both published in 2021. His new book, titled “Interstellar”, was published in August 2023.

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/space/ }

22-08-2024 om 17:31 geschreven door peter  

An Ancient Magma Ocean Once Covered the Moon, India’s Pragyan Lunar Rover Reveals

The Moon was probably once a gooey ball.

by Doris Elín Urrutia

 

NASA

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

22-08-2024 om 17:02 geschreven door peter  

Bewijs van “Sneeuwbalaarde” gevonden op 700 miljoen jaar oud gesteente

door Janine

Oleg Kuznetsov/Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 4.0

De afgelopen decennia hebben we meer inzicht gekregen in de geologische geschiedenis van onze planeet: we kunnen nu gebeurtenissen traceren die honderden miljoenen, zo niet miljarden jaren geleden plaatsvonden. Een van de meest fascinerende gebeurtenissen is ongetwijfeld die van de Sneeuwbalaarde, een tijdperk waarin onze planeet volledig bedekt was met ijs. Dit is een theorie die vrij wijdverspreid is in de wetenschappelijke gemeenschap, maar sommige onderzoekers hebben er mogelijk bewijs van gevonden dat even uitzonderlijk als zeldzaam is. Laten we eens kijken wat het is.

Rotsen gevonden die de theorie van de Sneeuwbalaarde bevestigen

We bevinden ons tussen Ierland en Schotland, waar een bepaalde rotsformatie mogelijk het meest complete bewijs levert van de Sneeuwbalaarde. De ontdekking werd gedaan door een team onderzoekers van het University College in Londen, die hun bevindingen publiceerden in het Journal of Geological Society. Volgens het onderzoek bestaat deze rotsformatie uit lagen die zich tussen 662 en 720 miljoen jaar geleden hebben gevormd, tijdens het Sturtien. Dit zijn de woorden van de onderzoekers over de ontdekking:

De rotslagen die zijn blootgelegd op de Garvellachs zijn uniek in de wereld. Onder de rotsen die zijn afgezet tijdens de onvoorstelbaar koude ijstijd van het Sturtien bevinden zich 70 meter oudere carbonaatrotsen die zijn gevormd in tropische wateren. Deze lagen laten een tropisch zeemilieu zien met florerend cyanobacterieel leven dat geleidelijk kouder werd en het einde markeerde van een miljard jaar gematigd klimaat op aarde.

Met name een rotspunt op de Garvellachs-eilanden in Schotland lijkt de abrupte overgang van een gematigd klimaat naar een met ijs bedekte, sneeuwbalachtige aarde aan te tonen.

Een Sneeuwbalaarde, 700 miljoen jaar geleden

NOAA At The Ends of the Earth Collection - Public Domain

Het bewijzen van de theorie van de Sneeuwbalaarde is niet alleen nuttig om meer te weten te komen over de geschiedenis van onze planeet, maar ook om de evolutie van levensvormen te begrijpen. Van eencellige organismen en algen tot veel complexere vormen en de Cambrische explosie: de Sneeuwbalaarde zou, kortom, een fundamenteel moment kunnen zijn in de evolutie van het leven op onze planeet. Het probleem is om te begrijpen hoe en volgens welke verschijnselen.

Een vrij algemeen geaccepteerde theorie ziet extreme kou als een van de factoren die eencelligen ertoe bracht om met elkaar samen te werken en zo de eerste meercellige organismen te vormen. Tegelijkertijd zou de snelheid van deze evolutie verklaard kunnen worden door de relatief korte tijden van uitzetting en terugtrekking van het ijs, dankzij het albedo-effect. In de praktijk geldt dat hoe meer ijs er op het aardoppervlak zit, hoe meer het de zonnestralen reflecteert en daardoor afkoelt: een vicieuze of virtueuze cirkel, afhankelijk van hoe je het bekijkt.

Waar te zoeken naar bewijs van de Sneeuwbalaarde

Het team van het University College London kwam tot deze conclusies na het verzamelen van zandsteenmonsters uit rotsformaties tussen Noord-Ierland en Schotland. Daarna analyseerden de onderzoekers bepaalde mineralen in het gesteente, zirkonen genaamd, die gedateerd kunnen worden door de aanwezigheid van uranium dat met regelmatige tussenpozen vervalt tot lood. Deze monsters werden gevormd tussen 662 en 720 miljoen jaar geleden, precies aan het begin van het Cryogene tijdperk.

Als de resultaten van het onderzoek worden bevestigd door verder onderzoek, dan kunnen we kijken naar onweerlegbaar bewijs van de Sneeuwbalaarde. Aan de andere kant lijkt het vrij duidelijk dat we van de vroegere eenvoudige organismen zijn overgegaan op complexere organismen. Tussen de twee perioden in is er een planeet bedekt met ijs dat, eenmaal gesmolten, leidde tot een van de grootste veranderingen die ooit op aarde zijn gezien.

{ https://www.curioctopus.nl/ }

22-08-2024 om 16:28 geschreven door peter  

The research, led by researchers with the University of Montreal, reveals that LHS 1140 b is unlikely to be a small gas giant or “mini-Neptune,” constituting a large, mostly gaseous planet with a thick atmosphere abundant in hydrogen.

The data was collected by the Webb telescope last December and built on previous data collected by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, as well as the Spitzer and TESS telescopes.

Ryan MacDonald, a NASA Sagan Fellow in the University of Michigan’s Department of Astronomy and one of the participants in the recent research, said the discovery “is the first time we have ever seen a hint of an atmosphere on a habitable zone rocky or ice-rich exoplanet.”

“Detecting atmospheres on small, rocky worlds is a major goal from JWST, but these signals are much harder to see than for giant planet atmospheres,” he added.

MacDonald, who played a significant role in analyzing LHS 1140 b’s atmosphere, says that LHS 1140 b represents one of the best small exoplanets astronomers have discovered in the habitable zone so far, given that it can support a thick atmosphere.

“[W]e might just have found evidence of air on this world,” MacDonald said in a statement.

As the most advanced space telescope to date, the James Webb Space Telescope excels in the study of exoplanets. Its cutting-edge technology allows astronomers to probe the atmospheres of distant worlds, analyzing their makeup and assessing their potential to support life.

Credit: Northrup Grumman

A Captivating Habitable Zone Exoplanet Discovery

One reason LHS 1140 b has astronomers talking has to do with how close it is. At just 48 light-years away within the constellation Cetus, LHS 1140 b is likely one of the closest exoplanets to our solar system that also resides within its host star’s habitable region, sometimes also known as the “Goldilocks Zone” since such planets can offer temperatures suitable for the existence of liquid water, as opposed to its frozen or gaseous states.

However, there are still a number of questions about LHS 1140 b, including its size. Astronomers are hoping to determine if the exoplanet is indeed a rocky or water-rich super-Earth or if it might still be a gas-rich mini-Neptune after all.

Charles Cadieux, a doctoral student at the University of Montreal and the lead author of a new study on the promising exoplanet discovery, says that LHS 1140 b presently represents what may be “our best bet to one day indirectly confirm liquid water on the surface of an alien world beyond our solar system.”

Such a discovery, if confirmed, would be “a major milestone in the search for potentially habitable exoplanets,” Cadieux said.

A Super-Earth or a Mini-Neptune?

Although many aspects of LHS 1140 b’s size and nature remain mysterious, some of the data recently obtained with help from the James Webb Space Telescope seem to contradict the idea that the exoplanet is a mini-Neptune. Specifically, the team points to evidence that suggests LHS 1140 b has an atmosphere rich in nitrogen, making it similar to Earth.

Additional data will be required from future observations by Webb before the exoplanet’s nitrogen-rich atmosphere can be confirmed. However, one of the more promising details in the current data suggests that LHS 1140 b possesses less density than what astronomers would expect for a rocky planet with a composition like Earth’s, which could mean that as much as a fifth of the planet’s mass could consist of water.

In other words, LHS 1140 b could be a water world, which astronomers say may likely resemble a snowball. A liquid ocean may exist on the portion of its surface that continually faces its host star, given that it possesses a synchronous rotation similar to that of our own planet’s Moon, with one side constantly facing the Earth.

Current estimates suggest that if LHS 1140 b is indeed a snowball super-Earth or a water world, it may possess a “bull’s eye” ocean on its star-facing side that would be roughly half the surface area of the Atlantic Ocean. Given its constant exposure to radiation from its nearby star, this bull’s eye of liquid water ocean would also maintain a regular estimated temperature of around 20 Celsius (68 Fahrenheit).

Exoplanets are worlds that orbit stars other than the sun. 

(Image credit: Science Photo Library via Getty Images)

A Glimpse at a Habitable World

“This is our first tantalizing glimpse of an atmosphere on a super-Earth in the habitable zone,” MacDonald said of his team’s discovery, which they believe to be one of the best candidates ever discovered for such habitability studies. Compared with other potentially habitable exoplanets, the relatively calm state of its host star also makes studies of LHS 1140 b’s atmosphere less likely to suffer from interference resulting from starspots.

Although MacDonald says that initial observations are extremely promising, additional observations by the Webb telescope will help astronomers confirm whether the exoplanet does possess a nitrogen-rich atmosphere

For now, MacDonald and his team are excited about what their current findings seem to have revealed.

“Our initial reconnaissance of LHS 1140 b with JWST has revealed this to be perhaps the best habitable zone exoplanet currently known for atmospheric characterization,” MacDonald said.

• Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. He can be reached by email at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow his work at micahhanks.com and on X: @MicahHanks.

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/space/ }

21-08-2024 om 23:47 geschreven door peter  

21-08-2024 om 21:18 geschreven door peter  

Inside NASA's $1 BILLION plan to obliterate the ISS: Step-by-step graphic reveals how the doomed space station will be destroyed in 2030 - with up to 100 TONNES expected to slam into Earth

• In 2030 the ISS will be tugged into Earth's atmosphere and destroyed
• Experts say that the ISS is no longer useful for NASA and is a growing liability 

By Wiliam Hunter

The International Space Station (ISS) is not just a remarkable feat of scientific progress but, for many, is humanity's crowning achievement.

For the last 24 years, this football field-sized testament to human ambition and cooperation has whizzed silently over our heads 16 times a day without fail.

But it will soon be time to say goodbye to our outpost among the stars as NASA begins to lay out its $1 billion plan to bring the ISS crashing back to Earth.

By 2030, a SpaceX-operated tugboat will drag the space station back into Earth's atmosphere where it will burn up and, hopefully, fall harmlessly into the ocean.

However, while it might be sad to see the station go, experts say the ISS is already long past its expiry date.

After 24 years in orbit, NASA has now revealed its plans to bring the ISS crashing back to Earth in 2030 

How will the ISS be brought back to Earth? 

Since 1998 when construction began on the first modules, the ISS has hosted more than 250 visitors from 20 different countries.

In that time, astronauts have produced over 400 research papers and have studied everything from how mice embryos develop in microgravity to more efficient ways to recycle urine.

But after roughly 146,000 orbits, the systems and hardware installed on the ISS are beginning to show their age.

Weighing 400 tonnes (880,000 lbs), equivalent to more than 400 elephants, the ISS is so large that it can't actually stay in such a low-Earth orbit unassisted.

As it orbits, the station constantly hits particles from Earth's atmosphere which gradually but inevitably drag it back toward the planet.  

This means that the station's thrusters need to be regularly fired in order to keep it at a stable orbit of around 250 miles (400km) above Earth.

The ISS (pictured) was initially constructed in 1998 and has been home to more than 250 visitors from 20 different countries 

If these thrusters failed, the station would gradually fall out of orbit and crash, uncontrolled down to Earth.

To avoid the station falling of its own accord and potentially threatening a populated area, NASA unveiled its plan to deorbit the station in 2022.

Starting from 2026, the ISS will be allowed to fall under the effects of atmospheric drag until it reaches a height of about 200 miles (320km).

At this point, the last human crew will depart the station on a regular crew capsule, taking with them whatever equipment or items are deemed most historically important.

Once the last crew have gone, the station will continue to fall over several months until it reaches the 'point of no return' at an altitude of 175 miles (280 km).

When the station hits this point NASA deems that there is no way the ISS could be boosted back up to its old orbit and it now must be brought safely down to Earth.

To deliver the finishing blow, NASA has commissioned a 'space tug' which will launch from Earth, dock with the ISS, and then push the station out of orbit.

Speaking in a recent NASA press conference, Dana Weigel, NASA’s ISS manager, explained that the tug would do this over several stages over 18 months.

Ms Weigel says: 'At the right time it will perform a complex series of actions... over several days to deorbit the space station.

NASA now plans to use a SpaceX tug to push the station out of orbit so that most of the station will burn up in Earth's atmosphere upon reentry

'First, the deorbit vehicle will perform orbit shaping burns to put the station in a low elliptical orbit and then, eventually, it will perform a final reentry burn'.

Most of the space station will be destroyed as it hits the thicker parts of the atmosphere at speeds of around 18,000 miles per hour (29,000km/h).

However, between 40 and 100 tonnes of material, mainly made up of the station's denser components, are still expected to slam into a remote region of Earth.

NASA hopes that its careful planning will bring the remaining pieces down at Point Nemo, a spot in the Pacific Ocean so remote that astronauts on the ISS are often the closest living people.

So far, between 260-300 space objects have already been brought down at Point Nemo, earning it the nickname 'the spaceship graveyard'. 

If all goes to plan, any remaining debris will fall near Point Nemo (pictured) in the Pacific Ocean, this is the furthest place on earth from any living person 

Read More

BREAKING NEWS

•  Elon Musk's Starship returns to Earth after completing landmark test flight for the first time 

However, developing a spaceship capable of bringing this monumental station safely to Earth will not be easy or cheap.

Ms Weigel said: 'The deorbit vehicle will need six times the usable propellant and three to four times the power generations and storage of today's Dragon spacecraft.

'The thing that I think is most complex and challenging is that this burn must be powerful enough to fly the entire space station all the while resisting the torques and forces caused by increasing atmospheric drag.'

NASA had originally suggested that it would employ a Russian Progress spacecraft to deliver the final push.

NASA has commissioned SpaceX to develop a modified version of their Dragon Capsule (pictured). The difference is that the Trunk section (bottom) will need to function as its own spaceship 

But as geopolitical tensions escalated, Russian officials have gone back and forth on whether they will commit to the ISS beyond 2024. 

Perhaps spooked by their partner's lack of commitment, the space agency has now commissioned Elon Musk's SpaceX to provide the space tug instead.  

The final tug will be based on the SpaceX Dragon with an enhanced trunk section.

That trunk will essentially be a spaceship in its own right complete with navigational equipment, a huge fuel supply, and an enormous array of engines. 

NASA now estimates that the total cost of developing this new system will be $1 billion (£800 million).  

NASA estimates it will cost $1bn (£800m) to convert a Dragon capsule (pictured) into a vehicle capable of pushing the ISS out of orbit 

Read More

• Out-of-control rockets and spacecraft that have crashed to Earth REVEALED in interactive map 

Is the plan safe?

Bringing satellites out of orbit is always somewhat risky but, thanks to improved modelling, has become a fairly routine part of the space industry.

While there is room for error at every step of the mission, the most critical moment will come as the space tug begins its final deorbit burn.

Dr Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told MailOnline: 'You can lower the ISS down to maybe 250km (150 miles) and still fly it the way you are now, but below that you're flying 17,000 miles per hour through the upper atmosphere so you need much more muscle power.'

The biggest concern is that when the ISS reaches an altitude of 100 miles (150km), the rocket won't be able to keep it pointed in the right direction.

To bring the ISS safely out of orbit will require a massive amount of thrust. Even carrying a spaceship that powerful into orbit will require SpaceX to upgrade from the Falcon 9 rocket (pictured) to the currently experimental Falcon Heavy

Dr McDowell says: 'Now you're firing the rocket in the wrong direction and you're tumbling end over end so you end up.

'You end up with a space station that is in a very, very low orbit that's going to reenter somewhere in a matter of days but you don't know where.'    

However, that station was only one-fifth the size of the ISS so the space tug will need to be significantly stronger.

To make matters worse, space weather conditions can cause the Earth's atmosphere to fluctuate, changing the amount of resistance on the space station.

This could potentially trigger the station to tumble out of control, falling past the point of no return earlier than NASA anticipated. 

Unfortunately,  NASA already has a clear example of what can happen when deorbiting a space station goes wrong.

In 1979, NASA tried to deorbit their 75-tonne space station Skylab (pictured), the resulting disaster saw pieces of debris slam into populated regions of Western Australia 

Read More

• Revealed: The shocking conditions endured by NASA astronauts stranded by Boeing's faulty spaceship 

In 1979, NASA's first space station, Skylab, had been slipping from its intended orbit for months and the space agency made the decision to push into a dive over an uninhabited region of the Indian Ocean.

The 75-tonne structure tore itself apart as it crashed through the atmosphere sending debris falling over parts of populated parts of Western Australia.

Most of the debris did fall in the ocean as intended and no one was hurt, but the Australian town of Esperance did fine NASA for littering.

NASA's new space tug will need to deliver one final kick which is strong enough to bring the station down in less than half an orbit while not being so powerful that it tears the station apart. 

Over recent years there has also been a worrying trend of more space material surviving re-entry than intended.

Laura Forczyk, founder of space consultancy firm Astrolytical, told MailOnline: 'One thing that is popping up as a bit of a concern is that our modelling for what gets burned up in the atmosphere is proving to be a little off.'

Since the Skylab disaster, NASA has also miscalculated whether objects will burn up in orbit more often than expected. This led to pieces of an ISS battery (pictured) slamming through the roof of someone's house 

Fragments of SpaceX Dragon trunk sections have scattered over farms in Canada and the US and part of an ISS battery array even crashed through the roof of a house in Florida. 

'But this shouldn't be too much of a concern since it's just going over the Pacific Ocean,' Ms Forczyk adds.

Ultimately, since 1979 when Skylab crashed to Earth, NASA has gotten a lot better at bringing material out of orbit and the risk of the ISS missing its target is exceptionally low.

Ms Forczyk also points out that NASA is giving itself an extremely long mission time which should help mitigate any unexpected interference from space weather.  

Provided SpaceX's tug meets the specifications NASA provides and doesn't suffer any kind of software glitch in flight, the ISS should return to Earth with minimal risk.  

Large pieces of a SpaceX Crew-1 have also been found in a field in Australia in 2022. Hopefully, any debris from the ISS will land safely in the Pacific Ocean 

Read More

• NASA astronauts face 'life-altering' risks due to being stuck in space by Boeing's faulty Starliner 

Why is it time to destroy the ISS?

While it might be sad to see the ISS go, the hard truth is that the ISS's time is finally up.

Ms Forczyk said: 'The bottom line is that the ISS is getting older, some of that hardware's been up there for almost 25 years.'

The ISS was initially meant to be deorbited in 2016 but has had its lifespan extended several times in the intervening years.

This means that many of the systems and equipment on the station are now out of date and increasingly incompatible with modern technology.

More worryingly, the very structure of the ISS is beginning to show troubling signs of deterioration.

Each day the exterior of the station shifts from -120°C (-184°F) to 120°C (248°F) as it moves in and out of the sun's rays.

The ISS (pictured) has served humanity well for over two decades but the station is now old, outdated, and increasingly at risk of failure 

The ISS was originally coated with materials designed to reflect most of the heat, but constant exposure to UV radiation has degraded these coatings in some areas.

This has created uneven expansion which is putting an intense strain on the station's structure which has now created leaks.

In 2021, former cosmonaut Vladimir Solovyov told state media that at least 80 per cent of the in-flight systems on the Russian section had passed their expiry date and could soon suffer irreparable failures. 

Then in February this year, NASA said it was monitoring a growing leak in the Russian section of the ISS which doubled in size over the course of a week. 

Ms Forczyk says that these risks are dangerous but that the costs of keeping the station safe are simply no longer worth it.

'I don't believe it's a risk worthy of evacuating early, but as we're seeing with Boeing's Starliner you can never tell when equipment is going to go in another direction,' Ms Forczyk says.

'There's nothing saying we absolutely have to retire the ISS by 2030, it's simply budgets and balancing logistics.' 

Beyond these structural concerns, some argue that the ISS is now outdated in terms of what NASA wants to get out of its space programme.

As NASA turns its attention to projects like the Lunar Gateway orbital station, the ISS has served its purpose and is no longer needed to further the space agency's ambitions 

Dr McDowell explains: 'There's an argument to be had that we've learned most of what we need to from the ISS.

'Now, NASA wants to spend their human spaceflight on going to the moon, and you can't fund both.'

Dr McDowell says that the true legacy of the ISS is that it has taught us how to operate a large facility in space for a long period of time.

That is knowledge which will be critical for NASA's future missions to the moon and Mars, but the ISS has now simply outlived its usefulness.

Mr McDowell concludes: 'NASA is an agency that does the frontier, and the frontier is moving out.

'Now, low earth orbit is just another place where humans do business and that's not where NASA should be - NASA should be at the frontier.'

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

20-08-2024 om 23:46 geschreven door peter  

NASA spots mysterious object moving 1million mph through space

• READ MORE: Massive rogue planet glowing aurora spotted wandering the galaxy

By Matthew Phelan Senior Science Reporter For Dailymail.Com

A rogue, hyper-speed object — over 27,306 times the size of Earth — is hurtling so fast through our galaxy that it might break free of the Milky Way, according to NASA.

Scientists determined the mysterious object was cruising at a breakneck one million miles per hour when they spotted it more than 400 light years from Earth - one light-year is equal to six trillion miles.

While experts have not determined what the newfound celestial body is, they speculated it is a 'brown dwarf,' a star which is larger than a planet but lacks the mass to sustain long-term nuclear fusion in its core like Earth's sun.

If the object confirmed as a brown dwarf, it would be first-ever to be documented in a chaotic, hyper-speed orbit capable of breaking free from our home galaxy. 

A rogue, hyper-speed object - over 27,306 times the size of Earth - is hurtling so fast through our galaxy that it might break free of the Milky Way, according to NASA. The fast-moving object (NASA artist's image above, right) is estimated to be cruising at  1 million miles-per hour

A coalition of citizen-scientists with NASA's 'Backyard Worlds: Planet 9' project were the first to spot the celestial body, the US space agency confirmed this week.

'I can't describe the level of excitement,' German citizen-scientist Martin Kabatnik, a long-time member of NASA's Backyard Worlds program, said in statement. 

'When I first saw how fast it was moving,' the Nuremberg-based researcher confessed, 'I was convinced it must have been reported already.' 

Backyard Worlds citizen-scientists Martin Kabatnik, Thomas P. Bickle and Dan Caselden were the first to spot this million mph object a few years ago, earning the hyper-speed object the catalogued name CWISE J124909.08+362116.0.

According to astronomer Dr Kyle Kremer, who has collaborated with them on better understanding the object, several astrophysics theories could explain how the object, CWISE J1249 for short, could have gotten to its incredible speed. 

In one theory, CWISE J1249 rocketed out of a two star or binary star system after its 'white dwarf' sister star died off — collapsing in an explosive runaway nuclear fusion reaction called a supernova.

Another viable theory has it that CWISE J1249 originated inside a tight cluster of starts called a 'globular cluster' where it was flung free via the pull of a black hole. 

'When a star encounters a black hole binary,' Dr Kremer said in a NASA statement on the discovery, 'the complex dynamics of this three-body interaction can toss that star right out of the globular cluster.'

The volunteers who make up NASA's 'Backyard Worlds' work with interstellar image data taken by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) - a huge 'all sky' survey that ran from 2009-2011 and again from 2013-2024. Above, the WISE telescope (artist's concept)

NASA's WISE telescope scans led to the discovery of thousands of minor planets in our galaxy and the first Earth 'trojan asteroid,' a rock that orbits the same ring around the sun as our own planet. Above, a WISE mosaic 'the Heart and Soul nebulae' about 6,000 light-years from Earth

A host of university academics and government scientists, including members of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, have now drafted up a report on these volunteer citizen-scientists' observations, awaiting peer review at Cornell's arXiv site. 

Read More

EXCLUSIVE

Extraordinary row breaks out between Harvard, Johns Hopkins scientists over origin of mystery object that came from outer space 

These experts, including an astronomer from the University of Leicester and an astrophysicist with the American Museum of Natural History, have made their own case that the object is a 'hypervelocity L subdwarf.' 

That would make it among the smallest objects to qualify as a brown dwarf ever documented.

The international group of volunteers who make up NASA's 'Backyard Worlds' work with interstellar image data taken by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) — a huge 'all sky' survey that ran from 2009-2011 and again from 2013-2024.

NASA's WISE telescope scans led to the discovery of thousands of minor planets in our galaxy, multiple star clusters and the first Earth 'trojan asteroid,' meaning a rock that orbits the same ring around the sun as our own planet.

It has been NASA's hope that members of the general public, like Backyard Worlds' team, will make even more discoveries with this vast haul of outer space data.

The researchers tested 100 scenarios to see where high-speed CWISE J1249 might go next. The team found multiple scenarios (straight grey lines above) where this L subdwarf is likely to fling itself out of the Milky Way (the blue-dotted circle is the boundary of our Milky Way)

According to NASA, scientists plan to train further equipment on CWISE J1249 in an effort to get a better sense of its chemical make-up or 'elemental composition.'

The chemistry of this high-speed object could hold 'clues about which of these scenarios is more likely,' whether it was flung by a black hole or a collapsing white dwarf, whether it is a gas giant or a burning brown dwarf. 

Using open source software for modeling galactic orbits of celestial bodies, called galpy, these researchers tested '100 random initial conditions' alongside the identifying data they already know about CWISE J1249 to see where it might go next.

As published in their arXiv paper, which is awaiting peer-review with the Astrophysical Journal Letters, the team found multiple scenarios where this suspected 'hypervelocity L subdwarf' is likely to fling itself out of the Milky Way.

'Given the uncertainties in the inferred velocities and potential models,' the team wrote in their study, 'we find that [WISE] J1249+3621 has a significant probability of being unbound to the Milky Way.' 

'17 percent of our simulated orbits are unbound over 10 gigayears,' they added, meaning that the object could eject itself into the unknown in about 10 billion years.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

20-08-2024 om 21:48 geschreven door peter  

Astronomers Just Discovered A Low-Mass Object Flying At a Million Miles Per Hour

A team of citizen scientists first discovered the object while they were working on NASA’s Backyard Worlds Planet 9 project.

by Doris Elín Urrutia

 

W.M. Keck Observatory/Adam Makarenko

What is the object?

Right now, researchers at NASA believe the fast-flung object, which they’ve called CWISE J124909.08+362116.0, once lived alongside another celestial body, as binary pairs are common in the Milky Way. The object also likely has a low-mass and could be a small star or a brown dwarf, an object larger than a gas giant planet, but lacking the necessary nuclear fusion to be a certifiable star. It’s possible that it was a partner to a white dwarf that went supernova. If it finally teetered over the edge towards self-annihilation and exploded, the resulting force could have given the runaway object its extraordinary speed.

Where did it come from?

Another explanation places CWISE J124909.08+362116.0 in a sea of many more companions.

Data obtained with the W. M. Keck Observatory in Maunakea, Hawaii showed that the fast-flying object is very old. NASA officials write it is “likely from one of the first generations of stars in our galaxy.”

This fits the description of a globular cluster, a spherical collection of hundreds of thousands to millions of stars that can be very old. Perhaps CWISE J124909.08+362116.0 lived in such a packed community, only separated by an average distance of just one light-year apart. A “chance meeting” with a pair of black holes, NASA says, may have been enough to send it on a one-way trip into intergalactic space.

“When a star encounters a black hole binary, the complex dynamics of this three-body interaction can toss that star right out of the globular cluster,” Kyle Kremer, a member of the research team and incoming assistant professor in UC San Diego’s Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, said in NASA’s statement.

More data on the runaway’s elemental composition could finally answer why it’s so out of this world.

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

20-08-2024 om 21:34 geschreven door peter  

Firsts for ESA

JUICE marks several firsts for space exploration and ESA. JUICE is the first non-NASA solo mission to the outer solar system, as well as the first ESA mission to Jupiter. The mission also follows in the footsteps of NASA’s Juno mission, utilizing enormous solar panels instead of a nuclear-powered MMRTG for power.

In another first, JUICE will perform the first-ever twin Earth-Moon flyby for this upcoming boost. This is a challenging ‘thread the needle,’ sort of maneuver, as the Moon flyby sets up the spacecraft for the Earth flyby. The maneuver is termed a ‘LEGA,’ or Lunar-Earth Gravitational Assist. JUICE fired its engines for 43 minutes last year to set it up for this month’s Earth-Moon flyby. A series of four smaller course correction burns were recently carried out, starting with a 31-second maneuver on July 22^nd.

The big test for the spacecraft will come in 2031, when JUICE fires up its main engines for orbital insertion around Jupiter. The trick during any engine burn for the spacecraft is to not induce any unwanted wobbles in the enormous cruciform-shaped solar panels.

The double flyby is the fortuitous result of the launch window back in 2023. The first Moon flyby gives engineers a chance to tweak the Earth pass shortly before closest approach if needed. The total delta-V maximum for the spacecraft is 2,700 meters per second or 6,000 miles per hour.

JUICE was even briefly mistaken for an incoming Potentially Hazardous Asteroid early this month. The spacecraft poses no hazard to the Earth-Moon system.

Previewing the Flyby

Here are the specifics for the encounter:

The closest Moon approach occurs on Monday, August 19^th at 21:16 Universal Time (UT), 700 kilometers from the lunar surface.

Closest Earth approach occurs about 24 hours later on Tuesday, August 20^th at 21:57 UT. At its closest, JUICE will pass 6,807 kilometers from the surface of Earth over northeastern Asia and the Pacific. This encounter happens in the daytime. Australia and southeast Asia have the best shot at seeing JUICE inbound just before closest approach in the pre-dawn sky.

For Europe and North America, the circumstances are less favorable. These locales will see the spacecraft farther out when it’s highest in the sky. For example, Paris will see the spacecraft at around 23:20 UT at a range of 220,000 miles/354,000 kilometers out. Boston will see JUICE at a range of 150,000 miles/241,000 kilometers away around 6:20 UT in the predawn sky.

The southeastern U.S. gets another shot around 1:00 UT on August 21^st (9:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time August 20^th). This low to the horizon opportunity occurs at dusk, as the spacecraft is then about 30,000 miles distant.

ESA’s ESOC (European Space Operations Centre) and the worldwide Estrack network will track JUICE throughout the flyby. This will also give mission controllers a chance to test key instruments, which will be switched on during the pass. Of special concern is the RIME (Radar for Icy Moons Exploration) instrument. RIME seems to be getting interference from other spacecraft instruments. Controllers will operate it in both solo and tandem mode along with other onboard instruments during the lunar flyby, in an effort to troubleshoot RIME. RIME is crucial to probing the interior of Jupiter’s icy moons.

Spotting JUICE

The key to spotting JUICE is knowing just where and when to look. JUICE is 27 meters across from the tip of one solar panel to another, and will pass Earth within range of the ring of geostationary satellites. A good specular glint of the Sun off of one of the large solar panels could temporarily raise JUICE in range of naked eye brightness.

Getting a precise position on JUICE is tricky, as most planetarium programs won’t include the deflection of the spacecraft due to the gravity of the Earth and the Moon. Generating ephemerides with JPL Horizons is your best bet, as it’ll give you a precise position in the sky in Right Ascension (RA) and Declination to point and conduct a search. Simply watch at the appointed time, and attempt to ‘ambush’ JUICE as it glides past. Much like a satellite, JUICE will look like a moving ‘star’ drifting across the field of fixed background stars.

JUICE is spacecraft ID -28 in the JPL Horizons System.

Astronomer Gianluca Masi caught sight of JUICE during a Virtual Telescope session on August 9^th:

Heavens-Above may post tracking maps for JUICE. They’ve done so in the past… we’ll note these here this weekend if they turn up.

Next up, JUICE will flyby Venus next August. It will then make two more Earth flybys, one in 2026 and a final one in 2029.

Good luck and clear skies, on your quest to nab JUICE on this historic Earth-Moon flyby.

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

20-08-2024 om 21:26 geschreven door peter  

Humans have always been captivated by the star-studded skies. Much like an orchestra thrills its audience with each instrument, our universe continues to astound us with each new revelation, including this recent discovery of CWISE J1249 by NASA citizen scientists of an unknown object moving at incredible speed.

One such incredible discovery was recently made by an exceptional group of astronomical enthusiasts, the citizen scientists of NASA's Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project.

Their keen eyes spotted an object moving at an astonishing speed of 1 million miles per hour, a rarity in the tranquil orbits of the Milky Way. This sensational find marks the first detection of such a fast and compact celestial object.

Understanding the Backyard Worlds project

NASA's "Backyard Worlds" is a fun citizen science project that invites everyone to help find new celestial objects.

This initiative aids in the analysis of huge amounts of data from NASA's NEOWISE mission to spot elusive brown dwarfs, rogue planets, and other cosmic gems that might have slipped past automated searches.

• https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x94btmk

• https://youtu.be/4jbDHeG1M5Q

Participants, called "citizen scientists," get to analyze images online, hunting for moving objects that could lead to exciting discoveries.

It's a fantastic opportunity for people from all walks of life -- no matter their scientific background -- to pitch in on real astronomical research.

Those involved in Backyard Worlds have played a key role in spotting several brown dwarfs -- objects that are too big to be planets but not quite large enough to become stars.

CWISE J1249 and the NEOWISE mission

The Backyard Worlds

From 2009 to 2011, WISE diligently mapped the sky, capturing images in infrared light, before being reactivated as NEOWISE in 2013.

This project, which was retired in 2024, played a crucial role in this discovery.

A few years back, dedicated citizen scientists, Martin Kabatnik, Thomas P. Bickle, and Dan Caselden, noticed a faint and fast-moving object on their screens, which was later titled CWISE J124909.08+362116.0.

Follow-up observations confirmed the discovery and allowed the scientists to characterize the object, earning these citizen scientists co-authorship in the study documenting this discovery.

Mysteries of CWISE J1249

• https://youtu.be/wNFsdBh7wrs

"I can't describe the level of excitement. When I first saw how fast it was moving, I was convinced it must have been reported already," said Kabatnik, hailing from Nuremberg, Germany.

Yet, the unique attributes of this object didn't stop at its extraordinary speed.

The low mass of CWISE J1249 makes it a difficult object to categorize -- it could either be a low-mass star or a brown dwarf, a celestial body somewhere between a gas giant planet and a star.

Despite being rare, planet-searching volunteers have already identified over 4000 brown dwarfs. However, none of these objects are on a galactic getaway like CWISE J1249.

Secrets of an ancient star

The intrigue doesn't end there.

Data from the W. M. Keck Observatory shows that CWISE J1249 possesses a different composition, with markedly less iron and other metals than other stars and brown dwarfs.

This unique composition indicates that CWISE J1249 might be quite ancient, possibly from one of the first generations of stars.

The object's breakneck speed has led to theories about its origin. Some speculate that it was part of a binary system with a white dwarf, which exploded as a supernova.

Alternatively, it might have been part of a globular cluster, a tightly bound cluster of stars, and a fortuitous encounter with a pair of black holes could have flung it off its path.

Collective effort in discovering fast-moving star

To further investigate these theories, scientists plan to examine the elemental composition of CWISE J1249 more closely.

The discovery was a collective endeavor, involving a medley of participants-volunteers, professionals, and students.

Kabatnik mentions Melina Thévenot and Frank Kiwy, whose efforts significantly contributed to this finding.

This study was led by Adam Burgasser, a professor at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), along with co-authors Hunter Brooks and Austin Rothermich, who both commenced their astronomical careers as citizen scientists.

These scientific triumphs demonstrate how the collective power of curious minds can unravel the most profound mysteries hiding in the depths of our fascinating universe.

Future of citizen science

The discovery of CWISE J1249 is not just a remarkable achievement for those involved, but also a testament to the growing potential of citizen science in modern astronomy.

With access to ever-expanding data from missions like WISE and NEOWISE, citizen scientists are increasingly contributing to groundbreaking discoveries.

Projects like Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 demonstrate how the collaborative efforts of enthusiastic volunteers, armed with the right tools and guidance, can lead to significant scientific advancements.

As technology continues to evolve, the future holds even greater possibilities for citizen scientists to play an active role in unraveling the mysteries of our universe.

{ https://www.msn.com/en-us/ }

20-08-2024 om 21:05 geschreven door peter  

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

20-08-2024 om 17:47 geschreven door peter  

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

20-08-2024 om 17:39 geschreven door peter  

Posted by Evan Gough

Ancient Rocks in Mars’ Jezero Crater Confirm Habitability

According to NASA’s Perseverance rover, ancient rocks in Jezero Crater formed in the presence of water. These sedimentary rocks are more than 3.5 billion years old and may predate the appearance of life on Earth. When and if these samples are returned to Earth, scientists hope to determine if they hold evidence of ancient Martian life.

In 2022, the Perseverance Rover worked its way along Jezero Crater’s western slope and sampled rocks from a feature called the ‘fan front.’ Scientists hypothesized that some of the rocks in this region were formed in the ancient lakebed when the crater was filled with water. Perseverance analyzed the rocks’ chemistry and captured images of their surroundings. Members of the Perseverance science team studied this data and have published their results.

“These rocks confirm the presence, at least temporarily, of habitable environments on Mars.”

Professor Tanja Bosak, MIT

Their work is titled “Astrobiological Potential of Rocks Acquired by the Perseverance Rover at a Sedimentary Fan Front in Jezero Crater, Mars.” It’s published in the journal AGU Advances, and the lead author is Tanja Bosak, professor of geobiology in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS).

“These rocks confirm the presence, at least temporarily, of habitable environments on Mars,” said lead author Bosak. “What we’ve found is that indeed there was a lot of water activity. For how long, we don’t know, but certainly for long enough to create these big sedimentary deposits.”

Perseverance collected seven samples from the fan front. Each of the samples is of a sedimentary rock, and some of them may predate life on Earth. “The samples include a sulphate- and clay-bearing mudstone and sandstone, a fluvial sandstone from a stratigraphically low position at the fan front, and a carbonate-bearing sandstone deposited above the sulphate-bearing strata,” the authors explain.

Sulphates and clays typically form in the presence of water, and so do carbonates. Depending on the types of sulphates, it reveals clues about the ancient water’s chemistry, temperature, and acidity. Carbonates are similar and can also reveal things about Mars’ atmosphere when they formed, like how much carbon dioxide it contained.

“The hydrated, sulphate-bearing mudstone has the highest potential to preserve organic matter and biosignatures, whereas the carbonate-bearing sandstones can be used to constrain when and for how long Jezero crater contained liquid water,” the authors explain.

While the samples were placed in sealed tubes for eventual return to Earth, Perseverance also abraded the rock next to each sample location, allowing the rover to analyze the mineral content of the rocks.

Mars rovers have found other rocks that were deposited by water, but none this old. These ancient Martian rocks are the oldest sedimentary rocks ever studied, and they likely formed when the Jezero Crater was a habitable lake. Because they’re sedimentary rocks, they could hold ancient organic matter. But that determination will have to wait until they make it safely to labs on Earth.

“These are the oldest rocks that may have been deposited by water, that we’ve ever laid hands or rover arms on,” said co-author Benjamin Weiss, the Robert R. Shrock Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at MIT. “That’s exciting, because it means these are the most promising rocks that may have preserved fossils, and signatures of life.”

Most sedimentary rock has two components: grains, which are like the building blocks for sedimentary rock, and cement, which are mineral deposits that come along later and bind the grains together. Over time, pressure forces cement into the rock pores, filling them and creating solid rock in a process called lithification. The researchers think that both the grains and the cement in the fan front sedimentary rocks likely formed in aqueous environments. During lithification, organic matter from ancient life could’ve been trapped in the rock.

The fan front is a prime place to search for evidence of ancient life. “We found lots of minerals like carbonates, which are what make reefs on Earth,” Bosak says. “And it’s really an ideal material that can preserve fossils of microbial life.”

Though sulphates form in the presence of water, the water tends to be very salty, which isn’t necessarily great for life. But it could work out for the best because of salt’s preservative effect. If the brine was restricted to the lake bottom, life could’ve persisted in the upper portions of the ancient lake. When lifeforms died, they could’ve sunk to the bottom. In this case, the brine would’ve acted to preserve signs of ancient life.

“However salty it was, if there were any organics present, it’s like pickling something in salt,” Bosak says. “If there was life that fell into the salty layer, it would be very well-preserved.”

It’s fairly well-established that Mars was once warm and wet. The next question is, did life ever exist there? To answer that, we need to find organic matter. But even that can be tricky since some organic matter can be produced geologically without life. The Curiosity Rover found organic carbon in Gale Crater, but scientists showed that UV fractionation is responsible.

Previously, Perseverance also found evidence of organic matter on the floor of Jezero Crater. Subsequent analysis showed that it could be matter that had no connection to life. This is a cautious reminder of the rovers’ limitations. Though they’re powerful, and it’s an amazing feat to have them roam around on another planet studying rocks, they can’t do the same science that’s possible in labs here on Earth.

That’s why the Mars Sample Return is so critical. Only by finally bringing pieces of Mars back to Earth can we fully understand the evidence that Perseverance is collecting.

“On Earth, once we have microscopes with nanometer-scale resolution, and various types of instruments that we cannot staff on one rover, then we can actually attempt to look for life,” Bosak says.

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

20-08-2024 om 17:32 geschreven door peter  

De rode planeet: prachtige foto's van Mars, genomen vanuit de ruimte

Foto: Justin Cowart - Tharsis and Valles Marineris - Mars Orbiter Mission / Wikimedia

De rode planeet
Mars is de planeet in ons zonnestelsel die de eigenschappen van de aarde het dichtst benadert. Daarom is het de favoriete bestemming van NASA-ruimtemissies. Kijk met ons mee naar de mooiste beelden van deze fascinerende planeet!

Foto: NASA/JPL/Universiteit van Arizona

Foto: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Universiteit van Arizona

Danielson-krater
Danielson is een inslagkrater met een diameter van ongeveer 67 kilometer, gelegen in het zuidwesten van de regio Arabia Terra. Deze foto, die gemaakt is door het ruimtevaartuig Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, toont het zand en de sedimentaire rotsen die de krater vormen.

Foto: NASA/JPL/Universiteit van Arizona

Een prachtig kleurencontrast
Op deze foto zien we geulen die gevuld zijn met glimmend ijs, dat in contrast staat met de rode aarde van Mars. De foto is genomen bij de seizoensgebonden poolkappen van de planeet.

Foto: NASA/JPL/LaRC

Een zonsopgang op Mars
Deze indrukwekkende zonsopgang op Mars is vastgelegd op 14 juni 1978 door de verkenningssonde Viking 2.

Foto: NASA/JPL/Universiteit van Arizona

Foto: NASA/JPL/Universiteit van Arizona

Een lentelawine
Hier zie je een lawine die is vastgelegd door de HiRISE-camera, vlak bij de noordpool van Mars. Elke lente schijnt de zon op dit deel van de planeet. Door de hitte van de zonnestralen vallen er blokken ijs naar beneden. Als de ijsblokken de bodem van de klif bereiken, die meer dan 500 meter hoog is, veroorzaken ze een stofwolk bij het neerkomen op de grond.

Foto: NASA/JPL/Universiteit van Arizona

Rotsformaties
Deze foto is in december 2018 gemaakt door de Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. De rimpels die te zien zijn in het zand vertellen ons in welke richting de wind om deze rotsformaties heeft bewogen.

Foto: NASA, ESA, en Z. Levay (STScI)

Phobos
Phobos is een van de twee natuurlijke satellieten van Mars. Deze kleine maan staat ten westen van Mars en cirkelt in de loop van een Marsdag, die ongeveer 24 uur en 40 minuten duurt, drie keer om de rode planeet.

Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Universiteit van Arizona

Een zeer jonge inslagkrater
Dit opmerkelijke beeld toont ons een inslagkrater die is gevormd tussen juli en september 2018. Deze inslag vond plaats in de seizoensgebonden zuidelijke ijskap en heeft deze zichtbaar doorboord, waardoor een ongelooflijk inslagpatroon ontstond.

Foto: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/JHUAPL

Krater Jezero
De Jezero-krater is een inslagkrater met een doorsnede van 49 kilometer waarvan wordt aangenomen dat hij ongeveer 3,7 miljard jaar geleden is ontstaan. Hij ligt ten westen van Isidis Planitia, een reusachtig inslagbekken dat zeer oude landschappen laat zien en interessant is voor wetenschappelijke studie. De Jezero-krater is door NASA uitgekozen als landingsplaats voor de Mars 2020-missie, die op 30 juli 2020 van start ging en momenteel bezig is.

Foto: NASA/JPL/Universiteit van Arizona

Steile duinen
Hier zijn duinen gefotografeerd op de hellingen van Nectaris Montes, in de kloven van Valles Marineris. De zandduinen die deze reusachtige kloven vormen kunnen indrukwekkend groot zijn, met schijnbaar zeer steile hellingen, zoals op deze foto te zien is.

Foto: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Mount Sharp
Deze foto is gemaakt door de ruimterover Curiosity die sinds 2012 op Mars staat, op Mount Sharp, een berg die midden in de Gale-krater staat. In het midden van de afbeelding zie je kleirotsen die NASA-wetenschappers graag willen bestuderen.

Foto: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Selfie van Curiosity
Curiosity nam een kleine selfie op Mars! Deze machine van 899 kg werd in 2012 gelanceerd voor de verkenningsmissie Mars Science Laboratory. Een van zijn doelen is het verkennen van de Gale-krater, waarop hij is geland. De missie Mars Science Laboratory is nog steeds gaande.

Foto: NASA/JPL-Caltech

De ravijnen van Valles Marineris
In het midden van dit mozaïek, dat een compilatie is van beelden die zijn gemaakt door het ruimtevaartuig Viking Orbiter 1, is een breder beeld te zien van de ravijnen van Valles Marineris. Ze zijn meer dan 3000 kilometer lang en 600 kilometer breed.

Foto: NASA/JPL/Universiteit van Arizona

Aram Chaos-krater
Op deze afbeelding zijn blokken lichtgekleurde lagen te zien die grotendeels bestaan uit hematiet en door water verweerde silicaten. Deze elementen vertellen ons dat de Aram Chaos-krater ooit een meer bevatte. De diameter is ongeveer 284 kilometer.

Foto: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Universiteit van Arizona

Crisp-krater
De Crisp-krater ligt in de Sirenum Fossae. Volgens NASA-wetenschappers zou deze krater relatief recent zijn, omdat de rand nog erg scherp is en omdat blijkbaar de ejecta nog bewaard zijn gebleven.

Foto: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Universiteit van Arizona

Spinvormige scheuren
Deze spinvormige scheuren bevinden zich in het oppervlak van het zuidpoolgebied van Mars. Ze zijn veroorzaakt door de verdamping van koolstofdioxide in de atmosfeer.

Foto: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Een zonsondergang op Mars
Deze zonsondergang is vastgelegd door InSight-lander van NASA op 25 april 2019 om 18:30 uur lokale Marstijd.

Foto: NASA, ESA, J.-Y. Li (PSI), CM Lisse (JHU/APL), en het Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Het passeren van een komeet bij Mars
De Hubble-ruimtetelescoop heeft de Siding Spring-komeet en de planeet Mars vastgelegd toen ze elkaar passeerden op 19 oktober 2014. Op die dag bewoog de komeet op ongeveer 140.000 kilometer van de rode planeet. Dit is een compositiefoto, omdat de komeet en Mars ten opzichte van elkaar bewogen en daarom niet gelijktijdig in één opname konden worden gefotografeerd.

{ https://www.msn.com/nl-be/ }

20-08-2024 om 17:23 geschreven door peter  

Three different technologies would enable this weight and cost to drop. First would be the solar electric propulsion (SEP) system initially designed for use on DART. The second would be a micro in-situ resource utilization (µISRU) system, and the third would be a power-beaming system between the lander and an orbiter.

Let’s first look at the overall mission architecture to understand how each contributes. In NIMPH, a combined orbiter lander will use an Atlas V rocket to get into Earth orbit. Then, a solar electric propulsion system (SEP) was initially designed for use on the DART asteroid redirect test. Although it was not used during the DART mission, the NEXT ion thruster was part of the spacecraft that launched, and, despite suffering from some technical challenges, it could have allowed the spacecraft to reach its destination. A similar, lightweight SEP system could get NIMPH to the Jupiter system, but it could also get the sample back to Earth after the lander collected it.

Just how the lander can get that sample back off the icy moon is the focus of the next major technological step – the µISRU system. NIMPH’s architecture would require using the local ice as a propellant. A lander would literally sublimate the ice under its feet, suck up the resultant water vapor, electrolyze it to split it into oxygen and hydrogen, and then liquefy it to store it for use in getting a 1 kg ice core sample back into orbit.

To do all of this requires power, though, and a lander with a radioisotope thermal generator or similar commonly used power generation system would be prohibitively heavy. So, why not utilize the massive solar array required for the SEP system and beam some of that power down to the lander? That is the concept behind the power beaming system, estimated to produce around 2 kW of power in the Jovian system, about 1.8  kW of which could be beamed directly to a lander. 

After the core has been collected and safely launched back into space using a specially designed LOx-LH2 engine that uses the water collected by the µISRU system, the lander meets up with the orbiter. The SEP system kicks back on and delivers the lander back to Earth orbit, where it once again detaches and rides back to Earth’s surface inside a standard reentry module.

There are some nuances to this entire mission architecture. For example, the SEP system wouldn’t work at full capacity in the Jovian system, so a much smaller LOx / Methane propulsion system is needed to maneuver the orbiter into position. Additionally, the lander would likely have to leave its legs embedded in the Europan ice, as the sublimation process it uses to collect fuel would likely embed them in place. 

Plenty of development work on all these systems must be completed before any such mission is ready for launch. And most likely, some of the need for the scientific understanding would be met by the Europa Clipper mission set to launch later this year for $4.25 billion – not far off the 10x times expense that was the original impetus for the more capable NIMPH mission design. And while NIMPH did receive a Phase II NIAC grant, it hasn’t been selected for further development as far as we have found. So, as of now, this novel combination of mass-saving technologies will not be delivering an icy Europan sample any time soon – but maybe someday it will.

Learn More:

• ExoTerra Resource / Michael VanWoerkom – Nano Icy Moons Propellant Harvester Final Report
• UT – Europa Might Not Be Able to Support Life in its Oceans
• UT – We Might Find Life Just Under the Surface on Europa
• UT – Europa Clipper Could Help Discover if Jupiter’s Moon is Habitable

Lead Image:

• Depiction of the NIMPH mission architecture.
  Credit – Michael VanWoerkom

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

20-08-2024 om 16:31 geschreven door peter  

Nieuw onderzoek helpt het mysterie op te lossen van de asteroïde die leidde tot het uitsterven van de dinosauriërs

door Janine

Freepik

Nieuwe informatie over het hemellichaam dat 66 miljoen jaar geleden op onze planeet neerstortte en het uitsterven van de dinosauriërs veroorzaakte. Een studie heeft ontdekt wat het werkelijk is.

Artistic representation of the impact 

(Image: Dona Jalufka / Universität Wien)

Chicxulub impactor, de ware oorsprong

Wat het uitsterven van de dinosauriërs veroorzaakte, was een ruimtesteen die op de aarde viel, maar waarover altijd een groot mysterie heeft geheerst. Het hemellichaam, de Chicxulub impactor genaamd, heeft al langer twijfels doen rijzen onder wetenschappers, die altijd hebben geloofd dat het een asteroïde of een komeet was. Recent onderzoek heeft echter de hypothese bevestigd dat het rotsblok van meer dan 9 kilometer breed deel uitmaakte van een familie van asteroïden die hun oorsprong vonden na de baan van Jupiter en die zeer zelden in contact komen met de aarde.

Een nieuwe studie, geleid door onderzoeker Mario Fischer-Gödde van de Universiteit van Keulen, Duitsland, heeft in dit opzicht verder bewijs opgeleverd, waarbij ruthenium werd aangetroffen in de geologische overblijfselen van de oude inslag. Dit is een element dat in zeer kleine hoeveelheden in de aardkorst voorkomt, maar juist zeer aanwezig is in asteroïden.

Een koolstofhoudende asteroïde veroorzaakte het uitsterven van de dinosauriërs

Pixabay

Op zoek naar soorten ruthenium in de Chicxulub-inslag onderzochten wetenschappers de wereldwijd verspreide laag puin na de inslag, de zogenaamde “Krijt-Paleogeen grens”, waarbij uniform elementen werden gevonden die behoren tot koolstofhoudende asteroïden, die grote hoeveelheden koolstof bevatten. Zoals Fischer-Gödde uitlegde: "de isotopische signatuur van ruthenium die we meten kan niets anders zijn dan een koolstofhoudende asteroïde."

Hoewel eerdere studies chemische kenmerken hebben ontdekt die verband houden met een koolstofhoudende asteroïde van het C-type, concentreerde het team zich op ruthenium. Omdat het zo zeldzaam is op aarde, zijn kleine hoeveelheden voldoende om dit soort ruimtegesteente te traceren. Wetenschappers hebben dit element gemeten bij vijf verschillende inslagen veroorzaakt door asteroïden van 541 miljoen jaar geleden tot nu: in alle gevallen werden de gebeurtenissen in verband gebracht met kiezelhoudende asteroïden, een groep hemellichamen die hun oorsprong vinden tussen Mars en Jupiter. Veel dichterbij dus dan koolstofachtigen. Dat is de reden waarom, zo merkte Fischer-Gödde op, "Chixulub tot nu toe een uniek en zeldzaam geval lijkt te zijn van een asteroïde van het koolstofhoudende type die de aarde raakt. Het ruthenium dat we in deze laag vinden, is voor bijna 100% afkomstig van de asteroïde."

De monsters van de onderzochte laag zijn afkomstig uit Spanje, Italië en Denemarken en hebben allemaal dezelfde samenstelling ruthenium, die verschilt van die van de aarde en daarom niet, zoals eerder werd aangenomen, afkomstig is van de uitbarstingen van de vulkanen van de Deccan Trappus. Bovendien verschillen de rutheniumisotopen in de onderzochte monsters van die in komeetfragmenten.

The 66-million-year-old Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary layer at Stevns Klint in Denmark. This boundary layer contains the globally distributed fallout produced by the asteroid impact at Chicxulub.

Credit...Philippe Claeys

Asteroïde die het tijdperk van de dinosauriërs beëindigde: meer vragen

Maar hoe stortte een koolstofhoudende asteroïde van deze omvang op de aarde? Het antwoord op deze vraag is nog steeds twijfelachtig, hoewel er wordt getheoretiseerd dat het, hoewel het zich na de baan van Jupiter heeft gevormd, mogelijk naar de buitenrand van de asteroïdengordel tussen Mars en Jupiter is geduwd, waar zich nu een groep koolstofhoudende asteroïden bevindt. Destijds kan de instabiliteit van de zwaartekracht van een jong zonnestelsel deze verplaatsing hebben veroorzaakt.

Hoe dan ook zijn er nog steeds veel open vragen over de impact van Chicxulub: een voorbeeld is hoe het de opkomst van nieuw leven kan hebben bevorderd, door sleutelelementen naar de bodem van de aarde te brengen voor de vorming van nieuwe levende wezens. Maar hoe zou de aarde er vandaag de dag uitzien als deze nooit was gevallen? “We moeten waarschijnlijk wat meer waarde hechten aan het feit dat we hier zijn en dat dit wellicht een gelukkig toeval is”, was het antwoord van Fischer-Gödde.

• https://youtu.be/OEGS1ONFc6E

{ https://www.curioctopus.nl/ }

19-08-2024 om 21:46 geschreven door peter  

Meet Oumuamua: the interstellar object some astronomers thought might have been an alien spaceship

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A history-making discovery
“This history-making discovery is opening a new window to study [the] formation of solar systems beyond our own,” Zurbuchen added, and he was more right than he knew.

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Photo Credit: NASA

Odd data indicated abnormalities
Scientists quickly realized that at the speed the comet was traveling, it had to have accelerated in the latter half of its journey, a fact that shocked the scientific community according to Kluger since the speed increase couldn’t be explained by our sun's gravitational pull or any other scientific theory.

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A possible alien craft?
“That left even sober scientists to speculate that the object might actually be an alien spacecraft,” Kluger wrote, “speeding up under its own power during its barnstorming of our solar system.”

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Photo: By Original: ESO/M. Kornmesser Derivative: nagualdesign, CC BY-SA 4.0

The comet Oumuamua
The comet was later named Oumuamua—which means “a messenger from afar” in Hawaiian according to Kluger—and while media speculation ran rampant about the possible discovery of aliens, scientists got to work figuring out a less fantastical explanation for Oumuamua.

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The Oumuamua's mysteries have been revealed
Some researchers theorized that what was found could have been an alien spacecraft, but roughly half a decade after the discovery, astronomers finally figured out the mysteries behind the comet and published their findings in March 2023.

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We might have an explanation
Hard work into the origins of our solar system's first interstellar visitor eventually paid off and two scientists believe they’ve finally found an explanation for Oumuamua’s unexplained speed increase halfway through its journey.

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Trapped hydrogen fueled Oumuamua's speed increase
Professors Jennifer Bergner and Darryl Seligman were able to show that Oumuamua’s speed increase was due to the release of what they said was “trapped molecular hydrogen” that had formed through an “energetic processing” of the comet’s icy body.

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An explanation from Bergner and Seligman
“In this model, Oumuamua began as an icy planetesimal that was irradiated at low temperatures by cosmic rays during its interstellar journey, and experienced warming during its passage through the Solar System,” the professors explained.

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The comet melted and hydrogen emerged
As Oumuamua warmed, the trapped hydrogen in its body was allowed to escape, which fueled the comet and allowed it to increase its speed to levels that baffled scientists.

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Photo Credit: NASA

Published in Nature
Bergner and Seligman published their work in the peer-reviewed journal Nature, and if it proves true, it would explain how Oumuamua was able to speed up in the latter half of its journey to our solar system.

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"A very interesting explination"
Karen Meech is a leading expert on comets at the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy, and she told the New York Times via email at the time the study was published that Bergner and Seligman's explanation for Oumuamua’s speed was a “very interesting” one.

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Plausible but not a solved
“I’m not willing to say it ‘solves’ things,” Meech continued in her email to the New York Times, “the smoking gun there would be to have detected hydrogen spectroscopically.”

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Oumuamua isn't solved
“But it is very plausible, and if another object is discovered that looks like Oumuamua, then all these models and explanations provide a lot of guidance for the observations,” Meech added.

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Debate will rage on
Controversy over Oumuamua raged on, however, since many astronomers at the time didn't agree with Bergner and Seligman’s assessment of Oumuamua’s icy body fueling the comet's speed increase.

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There was no evidence Oumuamua had an icy body
“The authors of the new paper claim that it was a water ice comet even though we did not see the cometary tail,” Harvard astronomer Dr. Avi Loeb told the New York Times. “This is like saying an elephant is a zebra without stripes.”

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The other possibility
In 2021, Alan Jackson and Steve Desch of Arizona State University proposed that Oumuamua could be a giant chunk of nitrogen that was blasted off of a Pluto-like celestial body according to Space.com.

{ https://www.msn.com/en-us/ }

19-08-2024 om 21:16 geschreven door peter  

3 Burning Questions We All Have About Boeing Starliner’s Epic Debacle

Starliner and its first crewed mission remain in limbo.

by Doris Elín Urrutia

 

Nasa/UPI/ShutterstockBoeing’s Starliner, which has been stuck in space since June 6 for what was meant to be an eight day long mission, is at a standstill.

NASA gave Boeing a contract a decade ago to build a commercial system to fly astronauts to and from low-Earth orbit. The aerospace giant’s first trial run with astronauts launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center up towards the International Space Station (ISS) on June 5. The mission, called Crew Flight Test, was slated to last eight days. Friday marked mission day 72.

Boeing Starliner’s inaugural crew flight carried NASA veteran astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. They’re still in space. The duo’s delay to come home stems from issues that first arose as Starliner sought to rendezvous with the ISS.

A key problem with Starliner is that five of its thrusters, which are part of the propulsion system, failed and turned off during the flight to the ISS. Over the past several weeks, NASA and Boeing have performed a number of tests to both the Starliner ship currently stuck at the ISS as well as a test unit in New Mexico to evaluate whether the thrusters are working and the spaceship can safely take astronauts home.

Specifically, on the Starliner docked at the ISS, scientists have performed what they call "hot fire tests" where they ignite all but one of Starliner's thrusters for a very short period of time to test that the thrusters are working. On a test thruster in New Mexico, Boeing engineers attempted to replicate what the thrusters in space would go through by putting them through the same thermal conditions and sequences that they'd feel during the flight.

The tests revealed that the thrusters were likely overheating, and that a teflon seal on the thruster’s oxidizer line poppet was swelling and causing fuel to get blocked.

When will NASA decide if Starliner will return to Earth with astronauts?

The Flight Readiness Review, in which officials are polled for go or no-go, could happen as early as next week. It could potentially get pushed to the beginning of the week beginning with Monday August 26, Ken Bowersox, associate administrator, NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, told reporters at a teleconference NASA held on Wednesday. “It's a fairly major discussion to decide about whether or not we're going to have crew on board Starliner for return,” Bowersox said.

Could NASA delay the decision again?

At the press conference, Bowersox said that “it’s getting a lot harder,” to delay the decision. He cited consumables, and the need to use the ISS ports for cargo missions, as reasons to avoid postponing the decision of whether or not Starliner returns crewed or empty much longer. “We’re reaching a point where that last week in August we really should be making a call, if not sooner,” Bowersox added.

If Starliner returns with no astronauts, would it mean the end to NASA’s quest for a backup plan in space?

NASA spearheaded its Commercial Crew Program so that it could pay more than one company to fly its astronauts to space. Boeing and SpaceX are meant to be dissimilar contingencies, or different options, in case one company cannot provide astronauts with a lift to space, or return them in case of an emergency.

In fact, although many details haven’t yet been ironed out, NASA has already reached out to SpaceX to bring Wilmore and Williams home on their Crew-9 mission’s Dragon capsule if Starliner is deemed too dangerous to bring the duo home.

“All I can say is that our intent is to keep pressing to have two providers,” Bowersox said.

“We've got two very good companies, and we want to develop two strong and capable spacecraft. We think we still have a very good chance of doing that. But the answer is always in the data, right? That's why we're doing this mission.”

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

19-08-2024 om 18:15 geschreven door peter